Blood tastes sweeter with a win

Apologies on the delay of posts, it's been a fun but busy week. Saturday was a cold and rainy day that made for a very tough match. A light drizzle started as the game began against UCT. From what I have heard, the Villagers forward pack is one of the smallest this season and it is apparent upon our first scrum. Where these giant men come from I have no idea, but nevertheless, we fear no one and gave everything we have. With the rain and the mud that is now forming, it was apparent that this game will be won by inches and tons of contact. On a nice, sunny, warm day, most rugby games tend to be played out in the backs with lots of plays, speed and an overall better quality of rugby. When it rains, the game slows, becomes more tiring and in general, is sloppier than usual. Scrum after scrum, ruck after ruck, tackle after tackle the game never seemed to end. Thankfully our flyhalf was able to capitalize on their mistakes as he slotted each of the 5 penalties. One penalty was given 55 meters away and our inside center decided to go for it. Everyone was preparing for him to miss, but it was though everyone willed the ball over the posts as he made the sixth penalty. UCT's offense did prove tough to beat. They scored twice and made their conversions giving them a total of 14 points. Towards the end of the game, UCT was making a strong surge to try and score at the last second. It was our hero of the game, the flyhalf who made the literal last second tackle which made the UCT ball carrier knock it on and the ref to blow his whistle. Game over, Villagers-18, UCT-14. A hard fought match between both sides, we showed just how much heart and effort (and mayyybe a bit of fitness) can really do. With the game over, I was called over the second side bench where I thought I would stay for the whole game. However, with 25 minutes left to play, the coach put me in and I played the rest of the match. The second side game was even more physical but they were bested by UCT and it resulted in a loss. After I was done playing my second match of the day, I finally got a chance to shower and go celebrate the win with the thirds. Saturday night was a fun night filled with friends, dancing, the works. Sunday was a nice recovery day where we all took it easy recovering from the tough game. More about this week in later posts.

Cheers,

Josh